1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to medical braces, and more particularly relative to an external pulmonary brace for permitting a patient to apply selected pressure to the chest area to assist the patient in coughing or expectorating.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Postoperative patients who have undergone chest surgery generally experience pain when engaging in postoperative pulmonary ventilation, such as coughing or expectorating, and are additionally subject to the danger of disrupting the chest incision by such action. Standard postoperative procedures for assisting the postoperative patient generally involve the use of applied pressure by the nursing staff, such as by placing a pillow over the patient's chest and pressing downwardly. This method is burdensome to the hospital staff in that nurses must be removed from their other duties to assist the patient, and moreover the method is somewhat uncomfortable to the patient in that he or she does not have control over the exact amount of pressure being applied.
Various types of surgical restraints and braces are known, each of which exhibit a central section placed in contact with a portion of a patient's body, the central section being connected at opposite sides to brackets. Such a restraint is disclosed, for example, in U. S. Pat. No. 4,321,890 for use with an anesthetized animal during surgery. The animals limbs extend through V-shaped legs at opposite sides of the restraint with the body of the animal resting in a supine position therebetween to prevent the animal from rolling over during surgery and during postoperative recovery. A leg support is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,496,935 having an adjustable central section extending across a user's thighs, and to depending side members surrounding the sides of the user's legs to maintain the user's legs adjacent to each other.
An extrication back brace is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,259,950 for stabilizing the pelvic area, the illiac crest, the shoulder area and the head of an accident victims body has, when viewed in cross section, a contoured central portion flanked on each side by curved flanges 23.
A lifting yoke and harness is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,724,846 for positioning the biceps and triceps muscles of a weight lifter in a substantially vertical position when the user's forearms assume a substantially horizontal position while lifting a weight. The yoke has a narrow central portion extending across the user's chest and two straight terminal ends extending from each side thereof which are positioned behind the user's triceps.